A variety of food service businesses including, for example, fast-food restaurants and delicatessens, are known to employ molded polystyrene foam containers for packaging prepared food items to be carried out by the customer. Although a number of designs have been proposed, such containers generally include a tray and a cover and a latching mechanism which may be manipulated to open and close the container. In many designs, the tray and cover are hinged together, although the tray and cover may be separate parts. One of the advantageous features of such containers is that, upon using the container to package hot food items, the polystyrene foam insulates and helps to preserve the temperature of the enclosed food items. A further benefit associated with the containers is that they seal the food enclosed therein from contaminants and enable the food enclosed therein to be handled and transported with relative ease. This is an especially important feature in fast-food restaurants because it permits quick and efficient processing of multiple food orders. It is a common practice in fast-food restaurants, for example, to stack multiple containers on top of each other for easier transportation of multiple orders.
Typically, however, when sealed polystyrene foam containers are employed to package hot food items, moisture is produced and retained within the container as a result of condensation as the container is cooled. Food items within the container will absorb the moisture and, depending on how long they remain in the container, may become moist, soggy or otherwise unpalatable. Food items that are particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon include, for example, fried chicken, batter-fried fish, french fries or virtually any food with a high moisture content and/or a crispy coating. One approach which has been proposed to remedy this problem is to provide a series of openings or vents on the top of the container which permit the release of moisture from the container. While this approach is an improvement relative to fully-sealed (i.e. non-vented) containers, it is a less than ideal approach because it permits contaminants to enter through the top vents of the container with relative ease. Contaminants are likely to enter a top-vented container, for example, if they are dropped onto the container or if another container having a contaminated bottom surface is stacked on top of the container. In fact, stacking of top-vented containers may not be accomplished at all without blocking the vents of underlying containers and thereby preventing the release of moisture from the underlying containers.
The present invention is directed to a polystyrene foam container which overcomes or at least reduces the effects of one or more of the problems set forth above.